Building Accessible Components: A Checklist for Frontend Teams

Accessibility (a11y) is not a niche requirement — it's a core product quality. This article provides a pragmatic checklist and explains how to integrate accessibility into your component development workflow.

Design & planning

• Include accessibility goals in your definition of done.
• Design with content in mind: a component's variations should all have meaningful text and visible focus states.
• Plan for localization and text scaling.

Developer checklist

• Semantic HTML: prefer native elements (button, input) before custom role implementations.
• Keyboard support: every control must be operable with keyboard-only interaction.
• ARIA: use ARIA attributes only when necessary and keep them updated with state changes.
• Focus management: ensure focus order is logical and visible focus indicators are persistent.
• Color contrast: meet WCAG AA contrast ratio for text and UI elements.
• Responsive text: support browser-level font scaling without breaking layouts.

Testing strategies

Use automated tools and manual audits together:

• Automated: axe-core, Lighthouse, or Playwright accessibility checks as part of CI.
• Manual: screen reader testing (NVDA, VoiceOver) and keyboard-only walkthroughs.
• User testing: include participants with disabilities when possible.

Component examples

For custom components, emulate native roles. For example, a custom checkbox should expose role="checkbox", manage aria-checked, and respond to space key events. A dialog should trap focus and return focus on close.

Integrating into your workflow

• Include accessibility stories in your component library (Storybook with a11y addon).
• Run accessibility checks on PRs that change UI.
• Maintain a lightweight accessibility guide for your design system.

Organizational practices

Success requires leadership support. Include accessibility in roadmaps and allocate time for remediation. Reward accessibility improvements the same way you do performance or security fixes.

“Accessibility is quality engineering. It improves the product for everyone.”

Adopting these practices incrementally will lead to better user experiences, fewer regressions, and wider product reach. Start small: pick one component a week to harden for accessibility and expand from there.

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